The present invention relates to a method for pressing in an antifriction bearing ring with high interference into a housing which receives the ring.
When higher forces are to be transmitted in antifriction bearings while additional axial fastening of the outer ring of the bearing is to be dispensed with in order to save costs, high force fits are required between the ring of the bearing and the object, e.g., a housing or a hub in which the ring is installed. As a result, high pressing in forces are also required for installing the ring. This requires using powerful and therefore expensive presses. On the other hand, the high pressing in forces lead to cold welding, hub cracking, etc.
Heating of the housing which is to receive the ring to temporarily expand the housing or deep cooling of the ring for temporarily contracting it in order to temporarily overcome high interference during installation of the ring is not possible during mass production of wheel bearings, since those steps are too costly and expensive. This is also true of hydraulic mounting methods in which oil is applied under high pressure into the force fit space and the ring or housing is thus widened. Details, calculation and shaping of force fits are described in general literature (see, for example, G. Niemann "Maschinenelemente" Machine Elements!, Vol. 1, pages 359 et seq., second edition, published in 1975 by Springer Verlag (Berlin-Heidelberg-New York) or "Zylinderpress-verband", Research Issue 161 of the Forschungsvereinigung Antriebstechnik e.V. 1984. Especially for antifriction bearings, suggestions for installation are given in "Die Walzlagerpraxis" Antifriction Bearing Practice! by Brandlein, Eschmann, Hasbargen, Weigand, 1995, Vereinigte Fachverlage GmbH, Mainz, page 398 et seq. or W. Hampp "Walzlagerungen" Antifriction Bearings! 1968, Springer Verlag, pages 132 et seq. They disclose that with correspondingly high interference between the ring and the housing or hub in which it is installed, a shift must soon be made to thermal technology or to hydraulic mounting methods.